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Topic: Has anyone ever tried using bitcoins? (Read 4495 times)
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an1m3n00b
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Ok, I've been really interested in using bitcoins, but I've run into some major issues.
1) All the major exchanges only accept weird currency transfers (dwolla, liberty reserve, etc...)
2) These currency transfers require an SSN AND a bank account
3) The bank account used for these currency transfers require an SSN
4) Even those prepaid greendot/walmart cards require an SSN
5) VISA gift cards are nonreloadable but you dont need an SSN if you're ok with the ridiculous fees
6) I haven't found a way to use just a debit card (like those prepaid ones) to buy bitcoins
7) The bitcoin block chain isn't anonymous. Anyone can see your ID when you make a purchase, and since your ID is linked to your mt gox account which is linked to your dwolla account, thereby your bank account and finally YOU!
#8 Are these things even worth it? Sure they have no inflation but they do almost nothing to keep govt from spying on you
So basically, the only way to use these is to set up a separate bitcoin address for every purchase and payment (AFAIK impossible) and keep all your bitcoins in bitcoins! Which really doesn't work since your employer will pay you in fake US dollars...
And the same problems that apply to bitcoins apply to bullion believe it or not: you can't buy bullion without, guess what a bank account (except for #5)
But you can't use bullion over the internet
and spending IRL leaves you open to the same problems that using a bank or anything else does...
Does real money even exist anymore?
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maxxoccupancy
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Someone should come to Freedom Expo (4/28 Exeter Town Hall) and explain bitcoins. I just don't see how they can be valuable. Also, if they're just numbers, why can't they be copied like a b-zillion times?
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We're in need of volunteers to help out with Freedom Expo. PM one of the organizers (like me) if you'd like to help.
"The Free State Project is an agreement among 20,000 pro-liberty activists to move to New Hampshire, where they will exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of government is the protection of life, liberty, and property." Freedom Expo is at Trinity Parish House, Seabrook, April 27, 2013! (right next to the Post Office)
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MaineShark
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#8 Are these things even worth it? Sure they have no inflation but they do almost nothing to keep govt from spying on you Bitcoins are not designed to provide anonymity. If someone can compromise the fact that you own a specific address, they can track all your transactions. Bitcoins are designed to prevent inflation, and to provide secure transactions; because the transaction is verified by multiple parties in the network before it is accepted, it is nearly impossible to fake (as opposed to a credit card transaction, which can be faked by compromising a single computer). Someone should come to Freedom Expo (4/28 Exeter Town Hall) and explain bitcoins. I just don't see how they can be valuable. Also, if they're just numbers, why can't they be copied like a b-zillion times? Because they're not just numbers. They are cryptographic sequences. Each one is unique, and there are a fixed number that can possibly exist (just like there are only a hundred two-digit numbers, if you include "00"). There can never be more than approximately 21 million bitcoins, because there are only that many solutions to the mathematical problem that creates them. Bitcoins are created by "mining" - you perform a computation to create one, then check it using a specific algorithm and see if what you created is a real bitcoin or not. You have to do that many, many times to find each legitimate bitcoin, and every 2016 bitcoins, the complexity increases. The result is that bitcoins are created roughly once every ten minutes. Those who invest the computing time in creating them are rewarded by ownership if that bitcoin, just as those who invest in gold mining, own the gold they dig up. Given the electrical demands of running the computers necessary to mine bitcoins, the return is actually fairly similar to the small returns mineral mines deliver. |
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"An armed society is a polite society" - this does not mean that we are polite because we fear each other.
We are not civilized because we are armed; we are armed because we are civilized..
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Ron Helwig
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Ok, I've been really interested in using bitcoins, but I've run into some major issues.
1) All the major exchanges only accept weird currency transfers (dwolla, liberty reserve, etc...)
2) These currency transfers require an SSN AND a bank account
3) The bank account used for these currency transfers require an SSN
4) Even those prepaid greendot/walmart cards require an SSN
5) VISA gift cards are nonreloadable but you dont need an SSN if you're ok with the ridiculous fees
6) I haven't found a way to use just a debit card (like those prepaid ones) to buy bitcoins
7) The bitcoin block chain isn't anonymous. Anyone can see your ID when you make a purchase, and since your ID is linked to your mt gox account which is linked to your dwolla account, thereby your bank account and finally YOU!
#8 Are these things even worth it? Sure they have no inflation but they do almost nothing to keep govt from spying on you
So basically, the only way to use these is to set up a separate bitcoin address for every purchase and payment (AFAIK impossible) and keep all your bitcoins in bitcoins! Which really doesn't work since your employer will pay you in fake US dollars...
And the same problems that apply to bitcoins apply to bullion believe it or not: you can't buy bullion without, guess what a bank account (except for #5)
But you can't use bullion over the internet
and spending IRL leaves you open to the same problems that using a bank or anything else does...
Does real money even exist anymore?
You can use a different address pair (one private, one public) for each transaction very easily. The "wallet" has a simple "New Address" button that creates it, and that's what you tell people to send money to you at. Anyone can copy your public address all they want but the only way to access the value associated with it is to use the corresponding private address. You can purchase them in person from someone who has a smartphone or is at their computer by handing them cash and they send the bitcoins to the address you give them. As long as you are careful about how you handle your addresses and wallet, it is possible to remain anonymous. But as in the physical world, just don't slip up - ever. How many times in movies have you seen someone running from "the law" only to get caught because they used a credit card at a gas station instead of cash? Same deal. And I accept bitcoins for my Shire Silver. Yes, you can buy bullion without a SSN. I don't ask for it, and I even delete the orders from the database a few months after they get fulfilled. |
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Jusmik
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I did exchange once, on this online platform, Mt.Gox, don't recommend it, I think they got hacked like 2 times..... and then you need to go through lengthy procedures to restore stuff.
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rank420
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bitcoins are cute  the first libertarian pyramid scheme LOL I think they are more valuable than FRN's but I can at least HOLD those. |
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Bazil
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I used bitcoin, but lost almost all of them when some one hacked my account on TradeHill. I'm out till some one comes up with a more secure place to store them and your computer isn't the place either. One guy lost millions (USD) when some one hacked his computer.
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"If it ain't broke, fix it till it is!"- The government | "Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed often, and for the same reasons!" - a friend
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K. Darien Freeheart
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some one comes up with a more secure place to store them and your computer isn't the place either Your computer is the most secure place to store them. Only people without backups think that a computer that you physically own, can inspect and can remove from networks whenever you desire is "insecure". |
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Bazil
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some one comes up with a more secure place to store them and your computer isn't the place either Your computer is the most secure place to store them. Only people without backups think that a computer that you physically own, can inspect and can remove from networks whenever you desire is "insecure". Your mind probably is. Yes you can store bitcoins in your mind by memorizing your private key and destroying your bitcoin wallet on your computer. |
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"If it ain't broke, fix it till it is!"- The government | "Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed often, and for the same reasons!" - a friend
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Ron Helwig
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Your mind probably is. Yes you can store bitcoins in your mind by memorizing your private key and destroying your bitcoin wallet on your computer.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Brainwallet - but your computer (with appropriate backup and encryption) is probably more than enough security. |
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K. Darien Freeheart
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Your mind probably is. Lemme remove that "probably" by pointing out a very simple feature of nearly every website you'll ever visit on the internet. "Forgot my password." The two major things to pay attention to there are this. 1.) You can't remember it (and protect it.) 2.) Someone else can. |
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